This invention relates to a method and means of signature verification and more particularly to improvements therein.
There has been a considerable amount of activity in the field of signature verification. For the most part, such activity has been directed towards automatic techniques of measuring parameters such as the forces produced in moving a pen while writing, the pressures exerted while writing, or the zero crossing for maximum and minimum points, and recording these, as they are generated in the course of writing a sample signature. These same parameters are then derived from a specimen signature and a machine comparison is made to determine, from their similarity, whether or not the specimen signature is a valid one or not.
While such systems are more or less effective, a visual comparison of two signatures for the purpose of determining authenticity, is also an excellent way to perform this procedure since a human observer can take cognizance of a wide range of subtleties and special features of writing that it is difficult to program a machine to take into account. If some way could be found to process signals derived from a pen as it is being used to write a signature, which can be then displayed and compared with signals similarly processed from a previous sample signature, and if the processing technique is such as to take into consideration elements of the dynamics of writing which on display can make signature differences more readily detectable, the combination of both the machine and subjective processing can produce a system which permits accurate and rapid subjective verification of signatures.
The utility of a system which enables accurate subjective determinations of signature differences should not be considered as confined to detecting forged signatures. It may also be used for studying or detecting the effects of medication on a person, and also the effects of disease, both muscular and neurological.